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Deja Vu
Buena Vista Pictures


4.7

based on 32 reviews
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How did we calculate this?

based on 111 votes
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FILM:

MPAA RATING: PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and terror, disturbing images and some sensuality

Starring Denzel Washington, Paula Patton, Val Kilmer, James Caviezel, Adam Goldberg, Elden Henson, Erika Alexander, and Bruce Greenwood

Everyone has experienced the unsettling mystery of deja vu, but what if the feelings were actually warnings sent from the past or clues to the future? It is deja vu that unexpectedly guides ATF agent Doug Carlin (Washington) through an investigation into a shattering crime. Called in to recover evidence after a bomb sets off a cataclysmic explosion on a New Orleans Ferry, Carlin is about to discover that what most people believe "is only in their heads" is actually something far more powerful - and will lead him on a mind-bending race to save hundreds of innocent people. (Touchstone Pictures)

GENRE(S):	Action \| Adventure \| Romance \| Sci-fi \| Suspense/Thriller
WRITTEN BY:	Bill Marsilii Terry Rossio
DIRECTED BY:	Tony Scott
RELEASE DATE:	DVD: April 24, 2007 Theatrical: November 22, 2006
RUNNING TIME:	128 minutes, Color
ORIGIN:	USA

All critic scores are converted to a 100-point scale. If a critic does not indicate a score, we assign a score based on the general impression given by the text of the review. Learn more...

Seattle Post-Intelligencer William Arnold

It's an ingratiating star vehicle and elegant entertainment.

Variety Staff (Not credited)

Cinema's natural felicities for time and action have seldom felt as beautifully dovetailed.

The Hollywood Reporter Michael Rechtshaffen

Unlike the last Scott-Washington matchup, "Man on Fire," Deja Vu boasts a muscular, fast-forward story that won't be overwhelmed by Scott's need for speed in the form of rapid cuts and all that visual fusion that have become his stylistic trademark. Here, the approach is perfectly suited to the picture's time-shifting, multitasking structure.

Los Angeles Times Kenneth Turan

What is interesting is not how little sense Déjà Vu makes but how little that matters. If you want your films to add up logically, you're welcome to take your calculator somewhere else. But if you do, you will be missing out on some first-class genre fun.

ReelViews James Berardinelli

Denzel Washington plays Denzel Washington, good cop. This isn't a great performance, but Washington wasn't brought in to show off his acting chops.

Premiere Stephen Saito

Although the science fiction element had the potential to drag the story down, it's kept to a minimum and left somewhat buried in techno jargon.

New York Post Lou Lumenick

Starts out a lot like an expensive-looking episode of "CSI" before morphing into a solidly entertaining time-traveling romance.

TV Guide Maitland McDonagh

An utterly preposterous but entertaining sci-fi action brain-bender.

Charlotte Observer Lawrence Toppman

This seemingly simple thriller has two subtexts, one more overt than the other, that should give pause to people who claim Hollywood is always too left-wing.

Boston Globe Wesley Morris

You aren't likely to see a more ludicrous movie for the rest of the year. But rarely has such ludicrousness been used to pay tribute to a town in need of love. Déjà Vu is generic enough to have been filmed anywhere. But it happens to be set in post-Katrina New Orleans.

Chicago Tribune Michael Wilmington

It's an almost overwhelmingly professional picture, murderously fast, slick and full of outlandish notions, painstakingly realized. And it's also surprisingly satisfying -- thanks to Washington, a good cast, Tony Scott's swift direction and that unyielding professionalism.

Christian Science Monitor Peter Rainer

This may be the first crime thriller to explicitly utilize superstring theory but, in its woozy romanticism, it's not that far removed from this year's other time-warp movie, "The Lake House," about two lovers living in parallel years - or "Frequency," which starred Jim Caviezel as a good guy.

Portland Oregonian M. E. Russell

The movie's biggest charm is its unpredictable, offbeat tone.

Wall Street Journal Joe Morgenstern

Déjà Vu is pretty dazzling, as action adventures go, even when it's wildly, almost defiantly, implausible. Movies can make us semi-believe the damnedest things.

Village Voice Nathan Lee

Déjà Vu isn't as sleek a genre pleasure as "Enemy of the State," but it does have a freaky little trick up its sleeve.

Newsweek David Ansen

It's preposterous, but never dull: Scott whips the action into a taut, tasty lather.

Austin Chronicle Marjorie Baumgarten

Déjà Vu has enough style and forward (or is it backward) momentum to viewers aroused. It's only after you leave the theatre that your head starts to throb.

Baltimore Sun Michael Sragow

The film is tense and engrossing. But it lacks exactly what the title advertises: the sense of inexplicable familiarity that should haunt you as the story unfolds and leave you all a-tingle when it ends.

Philadelphia Inquirer David Hiltbrand

Like "Man on Fire," the previous collaboration between Washington and Scott, Déjà Vu is stunning but poorly paced, a film that manages to be both captivating and frustrating.

Empire Adam Smith

Nobody does vapid bollocks as enjoyably as Tony Scott, and while this isn't as inventive as "Man On Fire" or as compelling as "Crimson Tide," it's still the right side of dumb.

Entertainment Weekly Owen Gleiberman

Déjà Vu is watchable trash, meticulously edited in Scott's skip-stutter style, but there's something ultimately unsatisfying about a thriller that more or less makes up its rules as it goes along.

The Onion (A.V. Club) Scott Tobias

Rarely have Bruckheimer and Scott been so upfront about insulting people's intelligence.

New York Daily News Jack Mathews

It takes chutzpah to title this movie Déjà Vu; every scene in it rings a bell. Certainly, I had just seen the same affable-righteous performance from Washington in Spike Lee's "Inside Man."

San Francisco Chronicle Ruthe Stein

A needlessly complicated and confusing thriller.

USA Today Scott Bowles

Déjà Vu cannot escape the weight of its murky science, action-film formula and preposterous ending.

Chicago Reader Jonathan Rosenbaum

The SF hardware (enjoyable) and thriller mechanics (mechanical) of this Jerry Bruckheimer slam-banger don't mesh very well with reflection, and the action trumps most evidence of thought.

The New Yorker David Denby

In brief, I fell cheated by these clever, narrative-disrupting films. They seem to miss the point. After all, every fiction film is magical--an artifice devoted to “What if?”

Salon.com Stephanie Zacharek

To believe Déjà Vu, or even to pretend you can actually follow it, you'll need heavy-duty gear -- harness belt, spelunking helmet, a great deal of rope, PowerBars for sustenance. A little coffee wouldn't hurt, either.

Miami Herald Rene Rodriguez

Deja Vu becomes increasingly sillier.

The New York Times Manohla Dargis

The joke of it is, for all the pricey bangs and booms, the whiplash cinematography and the editing that turns film space into cubistic tableaux, a Bruckheimer-and-Scott partnership is only as good as its screenplay, and this one is a mess.

The Globe and Mail (Toronto) Rick Groen

Definition of redundant: A formulaic Hollywood pic that calls itself Déjà Vu.

Washington Post Desson Thomson

After 9/11, few of us look at terrorist acts casually. It's insulting to watch this grandiloquent pornography, using shock value and Hollywood cliche to evoke poignancy.

The average user rating for this movie is 4.7 (out of 10) based on 111 User Votes
Note: User votes are NOT included in the Metascore calculation.

R. Lopez gave it a10:
another clique Sci-Fi thriller. Well your wrong Deja Vu is anything but clique it's an amazingly unique action thriller that you can watch over and over again and love every minute. Deja Vu stars Denzel Washington as Doug Carlin an ATF agent who is investigating a terrorist bombing of a ferry in New Orleans, as he digs deeper into the crime he realizes that he's done this before, and that to prevent the ferry bombing from happening he has to travel back to the past to prevent this event from happening. Denzel Washington delivers one of the best performances of his career as a man who has to repeat an event. Deja Vu is an intense, mind blowing and intriguing Sci-Fi film that will blow your mind. I very,Very highly recommended this amazing film.

theboss me gave it a10:
Interesting story line. Sci fi thriller that you should just enjoy instead of challenging the plausibility of time travel. Fun trying to determine exactly how many times he did in fact go back in time. Great performance by Denzel.

Lee P. gave it a9:
Really enjoyed this film, got dragged along to see it by a friend, having no prior knowledge as to what it was all about but it really hit the spot. It puts a different twist on the well worn thriller genre and because you already know what will happen should Denzel fail it cranks up the tension throughout! Well worth a watch!!

Ballistic Yours gave it a5:
Agent Doug only went back in time once, as shown in him popping up in the hospital..the ambulance in the blown-up shack was there just to add drama that things seem to be coming to predictable end, since Doug hadn't gone back in time then. Same thing with the bloody clothes and Doug's fingerprints all over Claire's apartment. Tony Scott and crew should hv studied their time travel theories better. Heck,maybe they should have read their script, since one of the scientists used the Mississippi River analogy that once u change an event, it will spew into a different travel line. It's really all inconsistent. But have to admit, that car chase scene,no matter ridiculous, looked cool. The Back to the Future films are the best time-travel films since the people behind them were really intellectuals, and thought the storylines out before producing them. Deja vu is bordering on fantasy..Lord of the Rings had more reality than this film!!

T C gave it a0:
One of the worst film I've ever seen. Totally far-fetched with lots of stupid lines. Denzel Washington is just able to smile to make believe he is the good one but his smiles are just fake. Val Kilmer on the other hand is totally unexpressive and just on the movie to get the money. Maybe he knew that the movie was going to be pure shit.

TeeYou Bee gave it a9:
I seriously lóved the movie! At the ending of the movie I got the clue that he did traveled many times back in time. Cauz at the beginning they say that Doug's fingerprints were all over everything in Claire's house. I first thought that this movie was a reality action movie. So when I first found out that it wasn't all that reality'ish, i thought the movie would suck, but it didn't. I really loved the movie. It is a movie where you have to watch good & listen good.The only thing I didn't get was 1 thing. If the Doug (who traveled back in time) died in a exploding car, then the life where he came from 4 days later, doesn't exist anymore right? Anyway, love this movie, cant believe some people rate this low..

Felix J. gave it a9:
The beginning is pretty slow but after the laser pointer thing it gets really sweet. I love hollywood stuff! And Denzel.

Deja Vu Buena Vista Pictures

Deja Vu
Buena Vista Pictures